Nuns' Island gas station

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The filling station, in 2007. Mies van der Rohe gas station.jpeg
The filling station, in 2007.
The filling station, closed, in April 2010. Station essence Ile des Soeurs - Mies.jpg
The filling station, closed, in April 2010.

The Nuns' Island gas station (French : Station-service de l'Île-des-Sœurs) is a modernist-style building on Nuns' Island in Montreal, Quebec. It was built as a filling station in 1969 from a project of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Closed for several years, it was later converted to a community centre. [1] [2]

Contents

It was the first gas station on the Island of Montreal commissioned by Imperial Oil. [3] It was also one of four buildings that Mies designed on Nuns' Island. [4]

Community centre

"La Station" lighting at night La station.png
"La Station" lighting at night

When the filling station closed in 2008, [5] the borough of Verdun transformed the building into a community arts centre, La Station. [4] [6] Eric Gauthier was the lead architect on the project, which saw the two glass pavilions rebuilt to their original 3,000- and 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) sizes. [7] The community centre opened in February 2012. [8]

La Station is a community centre for teens and people over 50 years of age. The two main buildings are called the salle blanche (English: white room) and salle noire (English: black room), after their floor colours. The original glass-enclosed attendant's booth serves as a display case of Mies' and the building's history, with the former fuel dispensers marked by ventilation shafts. The centre uses geothermal energy. [9]

See also

References

  1. "In Your Neighbourhood: The Mies Van Der Rohe Buildings". City of Montreal. Retrieved 24 March 2008.
  2. Perreaux, Les (27 January 2009). "The Ritz of gas stations looks for a new life". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  3. "Master architect designs unique station". Montreal Gazette. 20 September 1968. p. 90. Retrieved 26 December 2009.
  4. 1 2 "How a Mies van der Rohe Gas Station Became a Community Center". Bloomberg.com. 14 March 2019. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  5. "Conversion of Mies van der Rohe Gas Station / FABG". ArchDaily. 7 March 2012. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  6. Lejtenyi, Patrick. "Nuns saves Mies". Montreal Mirror . Communications Gratte-Ciel Ltée. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011.
  7. Leblanc, Dave (8 July 2011). "Mies's Montreal gas station gets new lease on life". The Globe and Mail . Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  8. "10 ans pour La Station, le centre communautaire intergénérationnel de l'Île-des-Soeurs" [10 years for La Station, the intergenerational community center on Nuns' Island]. Nouvelles d'Ici (in French). 27 June 2022. Retrieved 22 August 2025.
  9. Woolfrey, John (24 February 2012). "La Station: The Jewel in the Nuns' Island Crown". Openfile Montreal. Archived from the original on 20 January 2013.

45°27′36″N73°32′41″W / 45.4601°N 73.5446°W / 45.4601; -73.5446